Radio Listeners Complain

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 133, 26 August 1927, Page 8

Radio Listeners Complain

New Regulations on Licences

Restaurant Owners’ Grievances

NO notable concessions are embodied in the latest schedule of radio licence fees, and restrictions considered irksome are still in force. Amendments to the regulations were gazetted yesterday, but full details are not yet available.

ACCORDING to the Gazette, the Minister is invested with power to classify licences for stations operated by hospitals, schools and other institutions by whom the sets are not operated simply for entertainment purposes. Au alteration has been made in the fee for hotels, restaurants and other places of amusement. Formerly such concerns could operate on the same terms as the private listener-in, with

‘■DAYLIGHT ROBBERY”

The results of an Investigation this morning do not suggest that those coming under the classification will hail the extra levy with undivided enthusiasm. One restaurant-keeper went so far this morning as to term the proposition “daylight robbery,” and stated that he, for one, would rather cut off his set than pay £5 a year for a licence, particularly when the programmes were of the present calibre. He pointed out that the only programmes he could receive while his

room was open were broadcast from 3 o'clock to 4.30 on four afternoons a week. Exhibitions, showgrounds or temporary gatherings are provided for by the issue of temporary licences at ten shillings a week. Many listeners-in, particularly in Auckland, with its wealth of summer camps, have been hoping for a dispensation that will permit wider use of their sets in the summer. That is, they have been awaiting some authority allowing the removal of a set, kept at home during the week, to a camp or beach shack over the week-end. ON THE BLIND The practice, it may be noted, is already pursued extensively, and the officials permit it as long as formal notification is given, though in doing so they hardly comply with the strict letter of the law, which demands that every aerial be licensed. Owners of motor-boats, in which wireless is installed for week-end runs, are similarly placed, as are holiday trippers who want to take their set along with them on the annual camping tour. Both these classifications are persumably covered by the portable or temporary licences, for the former of which the Minister -las authority to define the field of operations. Under such conditions the listeners-in will have to pay twice over for the periods when he has the set away in his car or launch, and the general view will be that a distinct hardship is thus imposed. DEALERS’ PAYMENTS Dealers in radio gear are already covered by the portable licences. One firm with two partners pays not only Its £lO selling licence, but also or two demonstrators’ licences (portable) at £2 apiece. In addition each nays fo- - his private set at his home. Changes in the location of a radio station, or the mismantling of the set, are to be notified by the licence-holder within seven days. Every licence other than a temporary permit shall be in force until March 31 following, and ordinary licences can no longer be paid for in quarterly instalments, a provision that will save book-keeping, if nothing else. Mr. A. H. Campbell, assistant Telegraph Engineer, said this morning that he had no details of the Gazette notice, and therefore was hardly in a position to enlarge upon the revisions. As far as he could see, the ordinary licence-holder would be unaffected, but hotel and restaurant proprietors using the set to entertain patrons, would have to pay more.